


nothing left to give

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Giving Tree, M/M, mentions of payzer - Freeform, mentions of zarry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-06
Updated: 2013-04-06
Packaged: 2017-12-07 15:13:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/749955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>It was a weeping willow, one that had been planted by the previous house owners, and now it belonged to Liam and Zayn. It was their secret resting place, where they could run away and giggle and laugh and create memories. Their parents knew better to invade their personal space, and so the tree was left for Liam and Zayn alone.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	nothing left to give

**Author's Note:**

> This is a response to a prompt I was asked to do based on Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. I thought it was really interesting, so I decided to go for it! Hopefully I didn’t butcher it too badly! Unbeta’d and not Brit-picked. Feedback is lovely, and I hope you enjoy!

Liam Payne and Zayn Malik were best friends.

It was a fact, much like ‘the sky is blue’ and ‘vegetables are gross, but good for growing boys’. There wasn’t anything that could be done to separate the two boys, and no one really wanted to. Every day Liam and Zayn would run home from school, Liam always dragging Zayn along with his Buzz and Woody backpack half opened and hanging off one arm, while Zayn’s simple black backpack was zipped all the way up, and neatly placed around both shoulders. Even at a young age he would glance at his friend in amusement, wondering why Liam was in such a rush. Zayn liked to enjoy each moment, absorb the beauty.

But then Liam would drag Zayn to  _their_ tree, with soft chocolate chip cookies, and ice cold lemonade, and oh yes, now Zayn remembered.

It was a beautiful tree at the very edge of the Payne’s property, almost touching the woods at the back. It was a weeping willow, one that had been planted by the previous house owners, and now it belonged to Liam and Zayn. It was their secret resting place, where they could run away and giggle and laugh and create memories. Their parents knew better to invade their personal space, and so the tree was left for Liam and Zayn alone.

They had, at one point, gotten in more trouble than they ever remembered, for when Geoff Payne happened to walk out to the tree one morning, he found at the base of the trunk, the words,  _Zayn + Liam = BFFS FOREVER_ , the redundant statement carved messily into the wood. And though Geoff had blustered and gone on about preserving trees, and the vandalism that the boys had technically committed, Karen and Tricia simply hid their smiles behind their hands, and wondered what would come of their lovely boys.

Many lovely summer days were spent outside lying on the soft grass surrounding the tree, with the two playing thumb wars, or talking, or reading, or simply being. Sometimes Liam would bring out his Buzz and Woody dolls, and the two would play with them for hours, or Zayn would bring out an artpad that Liam had purchased for him last Christmas, and doodle on it while Liam fidgeted under his gaze. Even as a child Zayn had the markings of an artist, but no one could call his early works masterpieces. Still Liam treasured each and every one of the sketches, and somehow had enough room on his walls for all of them.

It was one of these days that found the two boys sprawled across the ground, both with a book in their hand, stealing what the eight year olds perceived to be covert glances.

“Why are you reading that?” Zayn finally asked, looking up from his copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He had already read the book countless times, as evidenced by the well worn spine, but it was his favorite so far, which may or may not have to do with the large portion of text dedicated to the tree that so resembled the tree he and Liam shared.

Without the attempted murder of course.

“It’s a good book.” Liam said lazily without looking up from the green, hardcover book, and Zayn scoffed, which finally drew a pair of reproachful brown eyes up from the words, and locked onto his own. But maybe that had been his intention all along.

“It’s for kids Liam.”

“We are kids.”

Zayn rolled his eyes in the way he had so often seen adults do; it made him feel more grown up, more mature.

“The Giving Tree Liam? Really? I mean come on, at least read something good.”

Liam frowned, and stared at Zayn petulantly. “It is good Zayn. It’s really sad too. The tree loves the boy so much, but the boy just takes everything from it. Who does that?”

And Zayn is at a loss for words as he stares into Liam’s eyes, because he really can’t imagine that sort of love. It sounds like the most horrible love in the world.

The years pass, and the boys continue to change, but the tree remains the same. Liam’s bedcovers are forcibly changed from Toy Story to Batman, though his comforter is still in the closet which he pulls out whenever Zayn stays the night. Zayn’s jeans get tighter and tighter, and he starts wearing thick framed glasses because he thinks it makes him look cool.

Still as everything changes, everything stays the same. They are still best friends, and they still have their tree.

It is under that tree that Zayn admits to Liam when they are thirteen that he might like boys. It’s that same night under their tree that Liam kisses Zayn, soft and sweet, and just hugs him, because everything has changed, but nothing is different at all, and Liam just wants to have fun with his best friend, and play football with the boy who moved down the street, and he doesn’t want to grow up, but he doesn’t want to taste any lips other than Zayn’s ever again.

But he seals it with a hug, and he pretends that he can’t see Zayn’s crestfallen face.

It’s when Liam is fifteen that he begins dating Danielle. She is sweet and soft and lovely, but conversation with her is just a little bit too stilted, and there is just a little bit too much space. Louis claps him on the back and tells him he’s only fifteen, and he’s dating one of the fittest birds at their school; he doesn’t need to be looking for his soulmate. But he’s already found someone who just clicks so well with him that having Danielle’s fingers loosely holding onto his, her body just a few centimeters too far away, instead of slotted against his, just feels odd.

And more importantly, she doesn’t fit with Zayn.

It isn’t that the two dislike each other, but if Liam thought his relationship with Danielle was a little awkward, it is nothing compared to Danielle and Zayn’s relationship. Eventually Liam decides that it is best just not to bring the two together, to avoid the ensuing awkward silences and one sided conversations that Liam hosts in their presence. And because he is a dutiful boyfriend, that unfortunately means less time spent with Zayn. And then one night Liam sees Zayn going out to  _their_ tree.

But he isn’t alone.

His fingers are laced with the long delicate looking ones of a boy from their school, one who Liam knows to be Harry. Liam immediately notices, even from his window how tightly their fingers are intertwined, how different they look from Liam and Danielle. They look more like Zayn and Liam used to, and he can’t figure out why, until he realizes that Zayn is smiling and laughing, loud and bright, in that special way that only Liam used to see.

Liam’s blood begins to boil with something hot and angry as he grips his pencil tightly. Then however, he sees Zayn pull Harry behind the curtain of leaves, and his anger cools into something sorrowful and heartbroken.

That was  _their_ tree. Liam had never taken Danielle back there, though she had asked a few times, because he believed in the sacredness of that tree. It was something special and private between him and Zayn, and it wasn’t meant for anyone else.

But the hurt Liam felt that night was nothing compared to the agony he experienced three months later, when he wandered out to the tree, and found the words  _Harry loves Zayn_ carved into the wood of the tree.

It was this same bone deep hurt that drove him to beg his father to have the tree cut down, and with tears swimming in his large brown eyes, his father could not say no, could not refuse his son who was so heartbroken over the tree in the back, and the boy who had always been a part of him.

Liam and Danielle had drifted apart, and though Liam had been a horrible friend to Zayn with the entrance of her in his life, he had always counted on having Zayn there. But now Zayn had replaced Liam with Harry, and he wasn’t strong enough to handle that.

Two days later, Harry approached Liam at the local farmer’s market, and begged him not to cut the tree down. He insisted that Zayn was an absolute wreck over the whole thing, and it wasn’t fair of Liam. Of course Liam had been feeling guilty for days, because Karen had told him with quiet chastisement in her eyes that the entire Malik family was saddened by the news. Liam had even been reconsidering his request, but seeing Harry standing there, with his accusatory eyes, and the insistence that he knew Zayn better than anyone, Liam’s resolve only hardened. He couldn’t blame Zayn if he wanted to be with Harry, if there was no longer anything special between the two of them, but he would be damned if he just stood by his window as Zayn took  _their_ special place and changed it into  _ZaynandHarry’s_ special place.

Still that doesn’t stop Liam from wandering out to the tree one last time. He chewed on his lip nervously as he pushed past the curtain of leaves, and sighed slightly, looking at the tree that had been a part of his life for so long. He frowned as something on the ground caught his eye, and he bent down to examine it closer. Seeing the familiar green cover of the Giving Tree, and inhaled sharply.

“I never got why you liked that book.”

Liam whirled around, but he already knew who had spoken. There was only one person who had that voice.

“It’s a good book.” Liam said, repeating the words he had insisted time after time. It brought a smile to both their faces, though the grins faded quickly. Zayn shuffled slightly, his hands shoved in his pocket. Liam was kneeling on the ground, holding the book.

“So why are you cutting down our tree?”

Liam’s head snapped sharply up, and his voice was cold as he spoke.

“It isn’t our tree.”

Zayn looked at Liam in surprise, and the brunette sighed and ran a hand over his newly buzzed hair.

“Look, I just…I’m going off to uni, and everything is changing. It’s time to move on, time to let go.”

Zayn bit his lip, and looked at Liam shyly through those long dark eyelashes that made Liam’s breath catch in his throat.

“Maybe things need to change, but who said anything about letting go?”

It was under  _their_ tree, clutching tightly his time worn copy of the Giving Tree, that Liam realized they both might have more to give.

_Epilogue_

It was night like these that Liam treasured most. Cool summer evenings, with the stars twinkling above them, Zayn’s head in his lap, allowing Liam’s fingers to card through the dark silky locks. It was these evenings that Liam missed the most when they were off at separate universities, three hours away from each other. Skype dates couldn’t allow Liam to touch Zayn, to feel his body slotted against his. They couldn’t allow him to kiss those soft lips, or wrap himself around the powerful lithe body. Those were only things he could do when he was with Zayn, and his favorite place to do them was underneath their tree.

Nothing was perfect between them, but it was still more than enough. Both had made mistakes, and both acknowledged them. Liam apologized for taking Zayn for granted, and shoving him aside; Zayn apologized for running to Harry, and ruining  _their_ special place.

At that point Liam took Zayn’s face in his hands and cupped it gently, reassuring him that he hadn’t ruined it, it could never be ruined.

But he might ruin it tonight.

The thought made Liam’s stomach churn uncomfortably, but there was nothing to be done for it. They would be separating again, in three weeks time, for their last year of uni, so it was now or never. Liam had to do it tonight, whether he was ready or not. And it had to be here, in their special place. It had to be a full circle.

“Zayn?” Liam murmured, and Zayn was instantly looking up at his boyfriend. Liam took a deep breath, and slid a finger in his pocket.

“You’ve been my best friend forever, even though I’ve been a pretty shitty friend before. And these past few years have been amazing, yeah? You’re absolutely brilliant, and talented, and sexy as hell, but you’re still just the five year old who would draw us as stick figures, and play Batman with me. You…you’re the Buzz to my Woody Zayn. I-I want to know if you want to spend forever with me, because I want to spend forever with you.” Placing a simple golden ring into Zayn’s hand, Liam finally met those deep brown eyes, and spoke from the depths of his heart.

“Zayn Malik, will you marry me?”

For a moment there was utter silence, and Liam searched Zayn’s blank face nervously, his confidence dropping significantly for every second no words passed between the two of them. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Zayn sat up and grabbed Liam’s hand, pulling him around to the back of the tree. Liam’s heart was currently dangling somewhere around his ankles, until Zayn pointed at something that Liam had to squint to see. The second he realized what he was staring at, his heart leaped to his throat, and tears began to form in his eyes.

There, carved into the wood of the tree, right over the  _Liam + Zayn = BFFS FOREVER_ were the heart stopping words Liam needed to see.

_Marry me Liam_

_And the tree was happy._


End file.
